Production of artificial filaments, yarns, or threads



w. .1. TAYLOR ET AL May 14, 1935.

PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL FILAMENTS, YARNS, OR THREADS Filed Nov. 2, 1933Lc hi. B. Glam 5 9M Patented May 14, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEPRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL FILAMENTS, YARNS, OR THREADS of DelawareApplication November 2, 1933, Serial No. 696,379 In GreatBritainNovember 17, 1932 13 Claims.

This invention relates to the production of artificial yarns, filaments,threads or the like having variations in denier along their length. Thisinvention is an improvement in or modification of the inventiondescribed in U. S. Patent No. 1,898,085 alone or as improved or modifiedby U. S. .application S. No. 496,798 filed 19th November, 1930.

According to U. S. Patent No. 1,898,085, filaments or threads ofartificial silk or the like are given a more or less frequent regular orsystematic irregularity in denier by drawing them at varying linearspeeds in the course-of their production so as to stretch them at anydesired intervals. 'The varying stretch so imparted results in acorrespondingly varying denier. Numerous methods of imparting varyingstretch are described; for example filaments in the course of theirproduction may be passed round a drawing roller which moves with varyingperipheral speed, either by virtue of its elliptical or other irregularshape, or because it is oscillated bodily and rotated simultaneously, oragain, because it is driven at a varying rate of rotation by means ofelliptical or other variable speed driving meansp Or again, thefilaments may be drawn by a conical feed roller and caused to engagewith parts of such feed roller of different diameter. According toanother method, the filaments are deflected from their direct paths atintervals, the varying of the path of the filaments thus giving rise toan intermittent stretching of the filaments. U. S. application S. No.

" $96,798 describes further developments of the invention described inU. S. Patent No. 1,898,085, various methods of altering the path of thefila-.

-ments being described, in addition to a method of varying the stretchimparted to the filaments by causing variations in the frictional forcewith which they are drawn from the spinning jet. The present inventionis particularly concerned with an extension of this principle ofproducing a varying denier, with the object of enlarging therange ofefiects obtainable, and, consequently, of increasing the utility of thematerials.

According to the present invention, a plurality of filaments are drawnat a varying linear speed in the course of their production, so as toimpart variations in denier to each filament,

and the.filaments are associated together as a thread in such a mannerthat corresponding variations in the difi'erent filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the finished resultant thread. Theeffect of the varying drawing speed falls on the weakest portion of thefilament, i. e. at its point of issuance from the spinning orifice. If,therefore, points in the length of all the filaments which issuesimultaneously from the spinning orifices are caused not to coincide inthe resultant thread, then the corresponding variations, which aresimultaneously effected at the several spinning orifices, will notcoincide. Nevertheless, since at any moment the speeds and thevariations in speed of all the filaments are the same, the same variations. in denier are imparted to all the filaments. i

The displacement of the variations in the finished thread may beeffected by the employment of orifices in different positions, For thispurpose, the position of each orifice may be different from that of allthe rest, or alternatively groups of orifices may be disposedat the samelevel as one another, but at differentlevels from the orifices in everyother group. Thus, the filaments may be drawn from a spinning jet of theordinary type, which is inclined to the horizontal, so that differentorifices lie all at different levels. By the employment of a jet whoseorifices are disposed in a straight line, a considerable difference inlevel may be obtained by this method.

Alternatively, a number, say four, of groups of filaments may be drawnfrom four separate spinning jets, each comprising a number of orifices,and each group may be given the same treatment so as to produce the samevariations in denier, the production of like variations in difierentgroups being however, out of phase with one another, so that thefinished yarn, consisting of four groups of filaments associatedtogether, exhibits variations whose frequency is individual groups.Furthermore, if it is desired still further to distribute the variationsin the finished thread, each or anyof the jets producing groups offilaments may be sloped, giving rise to a displacement of the variationsin the different filaments of each or any group.

In the manner described above a yarn of continuous filaments may beproduced having varifour times the frequency of variation in the Yinvention described in U. S. application S. No. 674,829 filed 8th June,1933. According to that application, artificial staple fibres for thepurpose of spinning into staple fibre yarn are produced by stretching tobreaking point a yarn having variations in denier along its length, thevariations being of a frequency corresponding to the length of staplefibre desired. In consequence of the yarns having such variations indenier, the filaments will break at the regularly occurring weak pointsrepresented by the reduction in denier, so that staple fibres of regularlength are produced. There is the danger, however, that the staplefibres so produced are formed as bunches whose ends coincide, since thefilaments all tend to break around the same point. This gives rise tosome difficulty during the subsequent process of spinning. Yarnsproduced according to the present invention present the advantage,however, that the filaments, while still tending to break at the weakestpoints and thus to give staple fibres of substantially constant length,break at various points along the length of the whole yarn, th weakestpoints of the various filaments being differently disposed along thelength of the yarn. Where an inclined line jet, as described above isemployed in this connection, great uniformity of distribution of thebreaking points of different filaments throughout the yarn may beobtained. Even with groups of filaments differently disposed, however,the result is very satisfactory in this connection. In this mannerstaple fibre is produced which can be more readily spun into spun yarn,and in fact the broken yarn of the present invention may have sufficientcohesion after breaking to be treated as a roving for spinning purposes.

The invention may be applied continuously with the production ofartificial filaments either by the wet or coagulation method as in thecase of regenerated cellulose filaments such as viscose or cuprammoniumfilaments, or by the dry or evaporative method as in the production offilaments of cellulose derivatives. The invention however is ofparticular importance in connection with the production of artificialfilaments of cellulose acetate or other organic derivatives of celluloseby the dry or evaporative method. Examples of other organic derivativesof cellulose are other organic esters of cellulose such as celluloseformate, cellulose propionate and cellulose butyrate or cellulose etherssuch as ethyl, methyl and benzyl cellulose.

The drawing of the filaments at varying linear speeds may beaccomplished by any of the methods described in the U. S. Patent No.1,898,085. Since, when such drawing action is applied to the filaments,the filaments are associated together and are treated in the same way,similar considerations apply to such treatment as in U. S. Patent No.1,898,085. Thus, the filaments may be passed all'together round adrawing roller rotating with a variable peripheral speed either byvirtue of its elliptical or other irregular shape or because the rolleris driven at a varying angular speed, or again, by oscillation of theroller bodily during its rotation. Further, the filaments when onceassociated together may be caused to follow a path of varying; length,so as to be drawn at varying linear speeds ,from the spinning orifices.Again, as described in U. S. application S. No. 496,798, thefllamentsmay be drawn away from the spinning orifices by the applicationthereto of a varying frictional force.

The spinning orifices may be arranged at difl'erent levels in anyconvenient manner, and with any desired difference in level. It is notnecessary, however, that the maximum difference should be so great thatthe variations in the different filaments return into phase with oneanother again. Thus for example, if the final yarn is composed of fourgroups of filaments and variations are required to occur in every halfinch of the final yarn, the stretching means may be such as to impart toeach group of filaments a variation in denier every two inches, thevariations being displaced in each group by a distance of half an inch,or a multiple thereof from the variations in each other group. Or again,if a sloping jet is employed and variations are imparted every twoinches, the difference in level between the highest and the lowestorifice of the jet,need not be more than two inches.

By way of example some forms of apparatus forv the purpose of theinvention will now be described in greater detail with reference to theaccompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a sectional side elevation of a spinning cell fitted for thepurpose of the invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional front elevation of part of Figure 1.

Figures 3 and 4 are a side elevation and a plan view from beneath of aspinning jet suitable for use in connection with the apparatus shown inFigures 1 and 2.

Figure 5 is a sectional side elevation of the upper part of a spinningcell fitted with a further form of spinning jet suitable for the purposeof the invention.

Figure 6 is a part sectional side elevation and Figure '7 is a partsectional end view of the spinning jet shown in Figure 5, and I Figure 8is a detail of the same jet.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2 a spinning cell I0 is provided with anumber of supply pipes H and filter candles 12 adapted to supplyspinning solution to a number of jets l3. The groups of filaments l4extruded from each of the jets l3 are all passed round a frictionlessguide l5 and leave the spinning cell by an aperture IS. The severalspinning jets l3 are all disposed at diiferent levels so that they areat different distances from the guide l5. After leaving the cell by theaperture IS, the filaments proceed in the form of a thread I! to a feedroller l8 by means of which they are led to a cap spinning device l9adapted to twist and wind them.

On its way to the feed roller I8, the thread I! passes over a member 2|having three arms 22 and mounted for rotation upon a shaft 23. The threearms 22 engage periodically with the thread I] and deflect it from itsdirect path to the feed roller l8, with the result that the thread I!and the filaments I 4 are submitted at intervals to extra tension andare stretched at their weakest point, that is, the point at which theyissue from the spinning jets l3 and are in a substantially liquidcondition. In this manner each filament is caused to have a regularlyvarying denier, all the filaments varying in. the same manner. Onaccount of the different distances between the different jets l3 and theguide l5, however, corresponding variations in the different filamentsdo not coincide in the final thread l'l, being displaced with respect toone another in accordance with the differences between the lengths ofthe paths followed by the different filaments. Thus there is produced athread of filaments, which filaments have similar variations in denierdifferently disposed along the length of the thread.

Instead of the fiat faced jet illustrated in Figure 1 and 2, a domed jetsuch as is shown in Figures 3 and 4 may be employed. The spinningorifices of this jet are disposed in a spiral, and, on account of thedomed form of the jet face 26, the orifices 25 areat different levels sothat an additional displacement between the filaments-of each group isimposed, as well as the displacement between the several groups formingthe thread l1. It is preferred that the orifices 25 should be boredparallel to the vertical axis" of the'jt, rather than at right angles tothe part of the jet face 26 which they occupy. This prevents thepossibility of tearing the filaments at the jet face by drawing themaway at an angle to the axes of the orifices.

In Figure 5a line jet 28 is shown inside the cell It, the line jet beingsecured to the candle I! by means of a curved pipe 29 which tilts thejet to an angle of 45. When this apparatus is employed, the variations.in denier imparted to the filaments coming from the-upper or right handspinning orifices of the jet 28 reach the bottom of the cell slightlylater than the filaments coming from'the lower or left hand orifices ofthe jet, with the result that the variations in denier, which areproduced as described with reference to Figure 1 are displaced along thelength of the thread formed from the filaments l4. This form of jet mayalsobe employed in the arrangement shown in Figures 1 and 2, the mostconvenient disposition involving the positioning of the jets so that thetopmost orifice of one jet is at the same level as the lowest orifice ofthe next jet and so on.

A part sectional side elevation and a part sectional end elevation ofthe jet assembly shown in Figure 5 are given in Figures 6 and '7respectively. The curved pipe 29 screws into a body 30 against whichthe; edges of a trough-like member 3| forming the jet proper are pressedby means of a clamping jacket 32. In the base of the trough 3| aredisposed spinning orifices 33, these being bored, as illustrated inFigure 8,

at such an angle to the jet face, that when arranged in the cell theyare vertical. This prevents the possibility of the filaments being tornat the jet face by drawing them away at an angle to the axes of thespinning orifices. The

jacket 32 is clamped up against the piece 30 by means of two screws 35passing through blocks 36 and bearing against faces 3'! on the.piecei'lll, the blocks 36 sliding under shoulders 38 on the inside ofthe top edges of the jacket 32.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent ls:'

1. Process for the production of artificial filaments, which comprisesextruding a plurality of filaments, drawing them all at the'same varyinglinear speed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to-each filament, and associating the filaments asa thread, the length of filaments between different spinning orificesand the point of association of filaments being different, wherebycorresponding variations in denier in the different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of thethread. I

2. Process for the production of artificial filaments, which comprisesextruding a plurality of filaments, drawing them all at the same varyinglinear speed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to each filament, and associating the filaments asa thread, the filaments being extruded from different points lying atdifferent distances from the point of such association so thatcorresponding variations in" denier in the different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the thread.

3. Process for the production of artificial filaments, which comprisesextruding a plurality of filaments, drawing them all at the same varyinglinear speed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to each filament, and-associating the filaments asa thread, the filaments being extruded from different points which liein a line at an acute angle to the path of the filaments therefrom sothat corresponding variations in denier in different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the thread.

4. Process for the production of artificial filaments, which comprisesextruding a plurality of filaments in groups which are situated atdifferent points, drawing the filaments all at the same varying linearspeed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similar'variations in denier to each filament, and associating the filaments asa thread, the length of filament between different spinning orifices andthe point of association of filaments being different, wherebycorresponding variations in denier in the different groups of filamentsoccur at different places in the length of the thread.

5. Processfor the production of artificial filaments by the evaporativemethod, which com-. prises extruding a plurality of filaments into anevaporative' atmosphere, drawing them all at the same varying linearspeed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier toeach filament, and associating the filaments as athread, the length of filaments between different spinning orifices andthe point of association of filaments being different, wherebycorresponding variations in denier in the different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the thread.

6. Process for the production of artificial filaments, which comprisesextruding a plurality of filaments, drawing them all at the same varyinglinear speed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to each filament, associating the filaments as athread, the length of filaments between different spinning orifices andthe .point of association of filaments being different, wherebycorresponding variations in denier in the different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the, thread, and subjecting the threadproduced to an operation of stretching to breaking point so as toconvert the thread into a continuous product of uniform staple lengthsof filament.

7. Apparatus for-the production of artificial filaments, comprisingmeans for extruding a plurality of filaments, means for drawing them allat the same varying linear speed in the course of their extrusion so asto impart similar variations in denier to each filament, and means forassociating the filaments as a thread. said associating means and saidspinning orifices being so disposedthat the length of fila- Lil mentsbetween different points of extrusion and the point of association aredifferent, where-.- by corresponding variations in denier in thedifferent filaments are brought to different places in the length of thethread.

8. Apparatus for the production of artificial filaments, comprising'anumber of differently situated orifices for" the extrusion of aplurality of filaments, means for drawing the filaments extrudedtherefrom all at the same varying linear speed in the course of theirextrusion so as to impart similar variations in denier to each filament,and means for associating the filaments into a thread at a point fromwhich said extrusion orifices lie at such different distances that thecorresponding variations in denier in the different filaments occur atdifferent places in the length of the thread.

9. Apparatus for the production of artificial filaments, comprising aline jet for the extrusion of a plurality of filaments, means fordrawing said filaments all at the same acute angle to the length of saidjet and at a varying linear speed in the course of their extrusion so asto impart similar variations in d nier to each filament, and means forassociat ng the filaments as a thread, said associating means and saidspinning orifices being so disposed that the length of filaments betweendifferent points of extrusion and the point of association aredifferent, whereby corresponding variations in denier in the differentfilaments are brought to different places in the length of the thread.

.10. Apparatus for the production of artificial laments, comprising ajet for the extrusion of a plurality of filaments, said jet having adomed face on which extrusion orifices are disposed on a spiral line,means for drawing the filaments all at the same varying linear speed inthe course of their extrusion so as to impart similar varia tions indenier to each filament, and means for associating the filaments as athread, said associating means and said spinning orifices being a sodisposed that the length of filaments between diiferent points ofextrusion and the point of association are different, wherebycorresponding variations in denier in the different filaments arebrought to different places in the length of the thread.

11. Apparatus for the production of artificial filaments, comprising aplurality of spinning jets disposed at different points and each havinga number of orifices for the extrusion of a plurality of filaments,means for drawing the filaments produced all at the same varying linearspeed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to each filament, and means for associating thefilaments into a thread at a point from which'said extrusion orificeslie at different distances so that the corresponding variations indenier in the different groups of filaments occur at different-places inthe length of the thread.

12. Apparatus for the production of artificial filaments by theevaporative method, comprising a spinning cell adapted to containevaporative medium, a plurality of spinning orifices disposed in saidcell for the extrusion of artificial filaments into said medium, meansfor drawing said filaments all at the same varying linear speed in thecourse of their extrusion so as to impart similar variations in denierto each filament, and means for associating the filaments as a thread,said associating means and said spinning orifices being so disposed thatthe length of filaments between different points of extrusion and thepoint of association are difa ferent, whereby corresponding variationsin denier in the different filaments are brought to different places inthe length of the thread.

13. Apparatus for the production of artificial filaments by theevaporative method, comprising a spinning cell adapted to containevaporative medium, a plurality of spinning orifices for the extrusionof artificial filaments into said medium disposed at different levels insaid cell, means for drawing said filaments all at the same varyinglinear speed in the course of their extrusion so as to impart similarvariations in denier to each filament, and means for associating thefilaments into a thread at a point from which said extrusion orifices byreason of their disposition at different levels lie at differentdistances so that the corresponding variations in denier in thedifferent filaments occur at different places in the length of thethread. a

. WILLIAM IVAN TAYLOR.

LESLIE BRISBANE GIBBINS.

